The Gift of Bravery and Courage
by DragonLover4Life
Summary: Yona is having a hard time sleeping and Hak's awake taking his turn on night watch duty. To help her sleep, Hak gives her a gift of "Bravery and Courage"


It was late at night, or probably early morning if he thought about it, as Hak continued to sit watch after swapping shifts with Jae-ha for the night.

Listening to the chirping of the night insects and the roar of the fire, Hak found himself lazily picking up a spare piece of firewood and getting out one of his smaller knives that might be considered appropriate for what he had in mind.

Heading over to a decent sized tree to lean against while still having a good view of their campsite and the surrounding area, he set to work and started carving. Gramps had shown him the proper technique so not to end up with jagged edges or splinter the wood apart years ago when he was no more than a little kid running amuck around the Windtribe.

He found himself enjoying the reminiscent activity from his childhood, back to lazy days and midday naps in the sun.

He was just finishing off stripping away the bark to begin his design when soft footsteps caught his attention. Looking up, he saw the young princess groggily making her way back to their camp.

Judging by the state of her hands, with their newly forming blisters and the fresh dirt covering her shoes, he assumed she was finished with her archery practice for the night.

Yet, instead of going straight to her tent with Yun to get any remaining sleep she could, she continued to make her way over to him and proceeded to flop down at his side, leaning against the tree with him.

After sparing her a pointed glance before continuing with his carving, she sighed and answered his non-verbal question.

"I haven't been able to sleep the last couple of nights and I've just about given up trying, so I figured I might as well make myself useful while I'm awake and take a turn keeping watch for the night. Besides, you always take a turn on watch, you could probably use more sleep than I could anyway".

There was a moment of silence between them, interrupted only by the call of a lonely owl as the sound echoed across the nearby river, before Hak simply got up and grabbed a spare blanket from out of one of their bags and headed back to the tree.

"It gets colder right before dawn" he said, as he dropped the blanket unceremoniously into her lap.

Taking that as permission for her to stay up on night watch with him (because even she knew that asking Hak to leave her out alone at night to keep watch had a zero percent chance of getting the ok from anybody, let alone him), Yona spread the blanket over the two of them and started to settle down.

After a bit of squirming she finally found a comfortable position before taking notice of what Hak had in his hands.

"What are you doing?", she asked.

"Carving".

"Carving what?", she pressed.

"You'll see, if you stop asking and just watch" he replied, in a rather bland tone.

Deciding she didn't want to push her luck if she wanted to stay, she ceased her questions and simply watched him work.

It was fascinating to see how deftly his hands could move. Each stroke with the small blade precise and intentional, leaving only long, smooth curves behind.

It amazed her how far his skills reached with a blade. Whether it was with something as large as his glaive or something as small and simple as the knife he held now, every blade Hak used was handled effectively and skillfully. No energy wasted on unnecessary movement, only clear and decisive actions.

It was the simpler things like this that reminder her that he was a warrior, not just in name, but deep down in his heart too. It was just something that made Hak, Hak.

As she was immersed in her thoughts, watching the complex design of swirls and knots start to take form in the wood, Hak jolted her back to reality.

"You want to tell me why it is you haven't been sleeping the last couple of days?", he asked in a stern but gentle tone.

"It's nothing".

Another pointed look from him.

"I just keep having odd nightmares is all, it's no big deal".

"Well, you can't just give up on sleeping forever otherwise you'll become and even bigger burden to carry around than you already are" he said with an impish grin.

She simply shoved his shoulder before he continued.

"I'm not about to let someone who's sleep deprived handle a weapon. That's just asking for mistakes to be made and for someone to get hurt, so unless you want to call it quits on your training, I'd suggest telling me what exactly it is that's keeping you from sleeping so that you can get some rest".

Knowing Hak did not make this sort of threat in vain, she sucked up her pride and told him everything.

"I just. . . I keep having this dream over and over again, it always starts the same and I always wake up in a cold sweat before it finishes.

I'm walking down an empty street on my own when I suddenly feel like I'm being followed, so I pick up my pace. I keep walking and they keep following me, anytime I look behind me their face is just out of view or just far enough away that I can't make out who it is, even if a second before I felt them only inches behind me.

The more I twist and turn down various alleyways, the closer I can feel them get. It doesn't matter how many turns I make or how fast I run, they are always there, right behind me, yet always just out of view."

Hak only listened intently and did not interrupt her as she continued.

"Every night for the last four nights its been the same and it always ends with me waking up to the feeling of a knife being plunged into my back, but I never see who does it. I'm fine of course but. . . I don't know it's silly and just a dream, but I can't seem to get rid of it".

Looking down at her, Hak could see that Yona's expression had turned to rest somewhere between unnerved by the dream itself and ashamed at admitting that a dream could render her feeling so afraid. Much like when they were still back at the castle and she had asked to hold his finger while she slept so that he might ward of her nightmares.

He smiles faintly to himself at the old memory.

With a final flick of his knife, he gently took one of her hands and pressed his finished work into her palm, wrapping her fingers shut around it.

Looking up at him in surprise, she slowly opened her palm and let out a small gasp at what she saw.

Sitting in her hand was a pendant about the size of a large coin, covered in an intricate design of swirling knots.

Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the knots in question resembled wisps of wind as they twisted and wrapped themselves in and around two mountains. One rising just taller than the other.

"It's an old symbol from the Windtribe" Hak said into her awed silence.

"As I'm sure you know, our tribe is known for the strength and loyalty we uphold within our mountain home. The taller mountain here –" he said, pointing to the mountain he had carved on the left.

"—Represents bravery. One of the strengths we pride and hold value in. The second –" he said, taking her other hand and guiding her index finger to rest on the smaller of the two mountains.

"—Represents courage. It's the smaller of the two because often it is overlooked but is no less important or strong than any other. Courage is the mountain that stands strong against the winds of time and adversity, and never falters".

He guided he finger to the intricate swirls surrounding the mountains.

"These knots that the wind forms represent our ties. Family ties, friendships— even strangers we have yet to meet. All of them are always with you despite how far apart they may seem. Our ties, are as ever present like the wind. We don't always feel its breeze against our face, but we know its there"

The look she gave him at the way he described every significant part of his carving brought a light blush to his face. Luckily for him however, even with the light of the fire it was too dark to tell.

". . . at least that's what gramps told me back when I was still just a little kid" he quickly added.

Still staring at the pendant Yona, slowly ran her fingers over each delicately carved design, thinking of who each wisp of wind was in her life. Her dragons, Lilly, Ik-su, captain Gi-gan, all the kind people she had met along her journey, and of course Hak.

At the thought of Hak she ran her finger over a particular wisp that seemed to entwine around the two mountains, bringing them together. This one was Hak, she thought. The tie that had kept her from falling apart back in those early days of grief. The wind that had taught her how to be brave, and how to find her own courage.

As she continued to trace each line, thinking of which one suited each of her self-made family, Hak got up and reached into one of their bags again and pulled out a short piece of twine.

Sitting back down and gesturing for her to turn around, he strung the pendant onto the twine and tied it off around her neck, just long enough so that it could rest over her heart beneath her clothes.

"Whenever you feel unsure, hold onto that and think about the two mountains and each knot of wind. It will keep those nightmares away and let you get some sleep. Think of it as a gift in return for the one you gave me" he said holding up his own pendant of Lapis Lazuli with a small smile.

The pendant she had given him in the hopes it would help keep him safe.

She could feel tears begin to prick her eyes at his out of the ordinary kind gesture but refused to ruin the moment by crying, even if the tears were happy ones.

So instead, she leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before quickly snuggling down under their blanket and hiding her face as she leaned against his shoulder.

Clutching the pendant tight to her chest, she felt herself relax as she lay down to sleep for the first time in four nights. Letting out a small sigh and pulling the blankets tighter around herself (because Hak was right, it did get colder right before dawn) she closed her eyes to try and get a few hours sleep before Yun and the others would be up and busy packing up the campsite.

{*****}

After an hour or two more of carving some cooking utensils for Yun (in order to pacify the mother bird who was sure to be a little miffed when he noticed some of his twine was missing), Hak shifted over gently so that Yona could lie flat with her head pillowed against his thigh.

He might be used to sleeping upright against trees, but he knew she certainly wasn't and didn't want her dealing with a sore back as they lugged their stuff along the road to their next campsite.

As he was pulling the blanket higher up to cover her shoulders against the chill he felt a small hand grab his own. Looking down, the princess had his pinky finger gentle wrapped in her fist as she continued to sleep peacefully.

Yes.

Some things never change, he thought with a smile.


End file.
